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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What evolution creates culture?

2. What is the problem with anthropology, in Edmund Wilson's estimation?

3. How does Wilson describe the difference between gifted and less-gifted artists' brains?

4. What does Wilson call sociology?

5. How does Transcendentalism validate ethics?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the difference between nurturists and hereditarians in describing how culture evolves?

2. What does Wilson say is the relationship between human genetics and the development of culture?

3. What is the sign, in EO Wilson's account, that culture is evolving?

4. What role does Wilson say creativity has in survival and evolution?

5. How does art look through the gene-culture evolution paradigm Wilson offers?

6. How do patterns in mental development connect genes to culture?

7. How does postmodern art resist consilience, in E.O. Wilson's account?

8. How does Wilson describe the universality of art?

9. What social science does Wilson credit with coming closest to consilience?

10. What does Wilson say the liberal arts should address?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is Wilson's proposal for integrating consilience in education. How have schools or organizations tried to foster consilience? How would your education be different if it were based on consilient principles? Make a prediction about the future integration of consilience in higher education.

Essay Topic 2

What difference is there between how individuals experience consilience and how societies experience consilience? Is the best audience for 'Consilience' really a society, or are there uses for consilience in individual lives? Who do you have to be to 'use' consilience? Who is Wilson's audience?

Essay Topic 3

What is the difference between consilience and wisdom?

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This section contains 737 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample